Chapter 2, verses 35-36
We said, “O Adam, live with your wife in Paradise, and eat therefrom generously, as you please, but do not approach this tree, lest you sin.” But the devil duped them and caused their eviction therefrom. We said, “Go down as enemies of one another. On Earth shall be your habitation and provision for a while.”

The first humans, known to us as Adam and Eve, were cast out of Paradise for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge after God had forbidden them to. The fruit is never named as an apple in the Bible or the Quran. In Christianity, Eve is blamed for eating the fruit and tempting Adam to eat with her. This story has been the cause of misogyny and for women to be viewed in a very negative light. The Quran does not blame the woman for eating the fruit but both of them.

Chapter 7, verse 22
He thus duped them with lies. As soon as they tasted the tree, their bodies became visible to them, and they tried to cover themselves with the leaves of Paradise. Their Lord called upon them, “Did I not enjoin you from that tree, and warn you that the devil is your most ardent enemy?”

In fact God names Adam as the first one to be duped by the devil.

Chapter 20, verse 120
But the devil whispered to him, saying, “O Adam, let me show you the tree of eternity and unending kingship.”

The progeny of these two human beings are us and those yet to come. We are not here on Earth because of the ‘original sin’ committed in Paradise; we are here on Earth because we wanted proof that Satan could be a god alongside God. The sin committed in Paradise by the first two human beings was to disobey God when told not listen to the devil or to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

Adams ego gets the better of him. He wants the wisdom that comes with the knowledge and he listens to Satan, he eats the fruit and corrupts mankind. Satan’s plan is to take every soul and he succeeded with the first human being. Adam’s sons commit the first murder and from then on the human being is the enemy of itself. Then suddenly Eve is the villain and all of womankind is condemned for committing the ‘original sin’ giving rise to the stories of punishment with menses and the downfall of mankind. None of the scriptures blame woman for the downfall of the human race, both man and woman are equally to blame for their own sins.

Original sin started in the High Society when Satan challenged the authority of God. The human condition is sinful, that is why we are here. Adam shows that the human being to be disobedient and ego becomes its god. This is where the story and faith begin and faith depends on belief in the story of creation and the exile from Paradise.